The Curious Creative: Week 36

No More Be Verbs!

This is the thirty-sixth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here. 

My Thoughts:

Writing teachers will often tell you to replace your be-verbs (is, am, are, was, were, have been, am being) with more interesting action verbs. The idea of be-verbs is very boring because something that ‘is’ is not doing anything. ‘Existing’ is very abstract. It is hard for the mind’s eye to imagine, but an action can be imagined. This week, we will play with a paragraph authored by someone else. This simple exercise will get you thinking about stronger verbs, so when you write your own material, you are conscious of making interesting verb choices.

Your Turn!

1. Glean a paragraph from anywhere. Make sure it is littered with be-verbs. Highlight the be-verbs.

example: Have you ever wondered why most of the things in Nature are so visually pleasing? Why spirals, though imperfect, are so attractive? Why four petal flowers are so rare? The answers can be found in mathematical principles.

2. In this first round, replace the be-verbs with action verbs that don’t change the meaning of the paragraph too much.

example: Have you ever wondered why most of the things in Nature PIECE TOGETHER so visually pleasingly? Why spirals, though imperfect, CURVE so attractively? Why four petal flowers VISIT so rarely? The answers SCREAM in mathematical principles.

Note: You may have to make some small changes in the rest of the sentences. If the sentence is a passive sentence, you may have to switch the subject and object for the sentence to make sense with an action verb. For example, you would change “He was eaten by the crocodile” to “The crocodile devoured him.” If the sentence uses a be-verb to describe something, you may have to change the part of speech of the adjective in the sentence. For example, you would change “She is beautiful” to “She hovers beautifully.”

3. In the second round, be more creative. Have fun! Wax poetic! Don’t be afraid to change the meaning of the paragraph.

example: Have you ever wondered why most of the things in Nature BLEED so visually pleasingly? Why spirals, though imperfect, WINCE so attractively? Why four petal flowers GIVE BIRTH so rarely? The answers DRESS in mathematical principles.

How did you do? Do your verbs give visuals? Does your last paragraph lean towards poetry? Are you more aware of how interesting action verbs can enhance writing?

To encourage each other and grow a community of Curious Creatives, sign in from a google account so you can share your creation in the comment box below. Also, if you subscribe to this blog (submit your email address in the "Follow this Site by Email" box to the right), you will get an email update whenever a new exercise is added. Thanks for playing! 

Source: “Why Seashells are so Alluring?” Inspiration Bit. http://www.inspirationbit.com

The Curious Creative: Week 35

Too Many Adjectives

This is the thirty-fifth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here. 

My Thoughts:

One thing you are not supposed to do in most creative writing is clutter it with adjectives. Writing teachers tell you over and over again that good writing is all about interesting nouns and strong verbs, and that adjectives and adverbs water it down. For this week’s exercise, you will first indulge in what you’re not supposed to do- overwrite with adjectives- and then you will redact them to see what remains.

Your Turn!

1. Simply write a description of the room you are sitting in. Go out of your way to describe every noun with at least one adjective, more if you can. Even add adverbs to each of your verbs. Write in the form a paragraph or freewrite. 

The stained, splintered picnic tables, wooden and square, line the grey, textured, pressboard deck floor. Empty and blankly anticipating the afterwork hours, they are bare and dirty, silent bearers of unwelcome splinters. Oblong globular lights zigzag neatly above them, hungrily anticipating a later hour.

2. Take a black pen and cross out every adjective and adverb.

The stained, splintered picnic tables, wooden and square, line the grey, textured, pressboard deck floor. Empty and blankly anticipating the afterwork hours, they are bare and dirty, silent bearers of unwelcome splinters. Oblong globular lights zigzag neatly above them, hungrily anticipating a later hour.

3. Rewrite the remaining words as a poem, adding line breaks where appropriate. Change articles (a/an/the) and prepositions (to/from/in/at) as needed. 

picnic tables line the deck floor

anticipating the hours they are

bearers of splinters

and lights zigzag above

anticipating the hour

How did you do? Does your poem include space that the original description did not have? Space that allows the images to breathe – suggesting subtleties and connotations?

To encourage each other and grow a community of Curious Creatives, sign in from a google account so you can share your creation in the comment box below. Also, if you subscribe to this blog (submit your email address in the "Follow this Site by Email" box to the right), you will get an email update whenever a new exercise is added. Thanks for playing! 

The Curious Creative: Week 34

Food and Home 

This is the thirty-fourth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here. 

My Thoughts:

For this week’s creative exercise, you’ll explore the connection between a specific food and the feeling of home. There will be plenty of rich sensory details to explore- taste, smell, texture, and sight. Also of interest will be how such concrete details can conjure up the abstract feeling of home. 

Your Turn!

1. List several food dishes that remind you of “home.” They can be regional specialties or your own family’s traditional dishes.

2. Of these, circle your favorite.

3. Spend five minutes clustering or mind-mapping some of your memories associated with this food. Recall details of events, people, and environment.

4. Pick the most interesting detail from your brainstorm, and plug it into the opening sentence: “It was _______________________ that told me I was home.”

5. From this sentence, continue drafting a personal essay or narrative.

How did you do? Did your sensory details make for rich writing? Were you able to uncover interesting details that conjure up the feeling of home for you? Did one particular story emerge?

To encourage each other and grow a community of Curious Creatives, sign in from a google account so you can share your creation in the comment box below. Also, if you subscribe to this blog (submit your email address in the "Follow this Site by Email" box to the right), you will get an email update whenever a new exercise is added. Thanks for playing! 

Inspired by: “Apple Pie.” “The Time is Now,” Poets & Writers, 7/6/17, pw.org.